Mr Gilbert was asked who was to blame for the closure of the plant and what could be done, as well as what life is like on Teesside for the ex-steelworkers.

During the short interview, he also corrected Mr Humphrys after the presenter introduced the segment by saying: “Lord Heseltine, former deputy Prime Minister for the Conservative party was asked to produce a report on what many see as the death of industrial Tyneside.”

When answering a question on losing his job, Mr Gilbert explained on the show that he had found work as a bus driver since the closure of the works - but that he was receiving up to £1,000 less in wages a month.

After telling Humphreys that minimum wage jobs were hard to come by, and that British industry in general was declining, he was asked: “What should happen now?”

John Humphrys is one of the presenters on the Today programme (Image: Dominic Lipinski/PA Wire)

Mr Gilbert said: “We need something to replace what we have got, they are proposing to bring jobs in, yeah that is a good thing, but we are looking at jobs that are coming in that are going to be minimum wage or zero hour contracts.

“It’s not going to replace the type of money that people were on.”

He then corrected the presenter on his earlier slip-up by saying: “Teesside, not Tyneside, is an industrial centre.

"We have always had that sort of means of support and when I left school it was either British Steel or ICI that we wanted to work at.